A Thousand Year can be a long time alone
by Olbyram
Summary: He had won them their war, fought and bled for them. In return they abided by his wish of peace, but when not everyone knew to follow his advice, well... Their is a reason they say 'Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon'.
1. A Spiders Web

Natalia Romanov was not currently having a good time, her week had started off simply, an influential rich young man had started to talk to the right people and had quickly making a name for himself in certain circles. Her mission had been simple, assess the potential threat of the individual and report back to the Director, whilst also drawing her own conclusions on the targets motives and the likely direction the targets new found interests may take.

A relatively simple operation and normally would have led to her being overlooked for it, yet the need for immediate action had meant the only method in, without months of prior ground work so to not look suspicious, was to be at the large party the gentleman was hosting where there were too many people and too easy to lose yourself. Unfortunately, many of the attendees would however be very aware of their surroundings, and as such this was where the risk of detection was highest.

The guest list included many major political figures from Britain and all over Continental Europe, celebrities and distinguished guest from all fields, but most importantly there was a large proportion of the scientific community there. Whilst such an act on its only would at most normal raise some red flags, in was not uncommon for them to look for funding from the many of the wealth sponsors, it was the focus of many of these researchers was in high energy physics and aerospace engineers. Both areas of research and development with particular interest to the United States and SHIELD in particular, well that and some rather well-known if unsavoury individuals, or at least well known to any decent intelligence agency.

The intelligence they had gathered on the target was he would likely to be inebriated rather early into the party and was rather enjoying the bachelor lifestyle. One pretty red head and the man would be singing like a canary, or at least that had been the general theory when she was assigned.

As usual the problems had started early on, for whatever reason the idiot in charge of briefing her once on location, had firstly just left a file and not been there himself but also left out the targets photograph when leaving said file for her to pick up from her handler in England. As such she could only go off what with written down for his description, yet these kinds of things were subjective no matter what. The party was being held in a manor in the Southern Oxfordshire countryside, with big open fields surrounding it. A typical stately home in the middle of the estate, the manor was large with a rather ostentatious feel to the whole thing, with corridors that never seemed to end and rooms all over, but then that was to be expected. Young man, new to money, showing off his wealth in large gestures, this was nothing new, if he was a bit old fashioned in his taste.

The apparent display of a family legacy with generations of family members portraits littering the wall of the corridor connecting the rooms near the back of the house seemed a bizarre design choice for someone born in an era of rejecting the establishment. Though a benefit was now she had a rough idea of physical characteristic that seem prevalent in the family, alongside already building up a profile of her own she continued onwards to the main ball room where the majority of guest would have gathered.

Her next challenge was finding her target, described as young mid-twenties, well-built and likely to be surrounding themselves with very influential people and the heart of the party. So as the Black Widow entered one of the many rooms where guests were milling about, trading thinly concealed insults at one another, and always maintaining the polite smile on their faces. She saw a young, dirty blond hared man, by one of the many bars, in his mid-twenties with a brunette of similar age on his arm, if she wasn't mistaken the girl was a rising star in the field of journalism and had been published on both sides of the Atlantic. Regardless though whilst dressed in certainly very expensive bespoke suit and the lady being in some designer dress it wasn't anywhere near what the true 'elites' were wearing, and it was unlikely for their host to be so secluded away, so no not him.

What caught her eye next was two men both incredibly well built, one seemed at easy with his situation the other though was what made her look closer, this one was a had a larger frame and whilst to the casual observers he was fine, to her he was anything but. This was clearly not a norm for this man from the looks of it he was consciously reminding himself to stand with a slight slouch to appear casual, his overall appearance was as such she would guess a military background and well trained. He was dark skinned square shouldered and black, close-cropped hair, his nose also looked to have been broken at some point in past.

So naturally she went over to assess if he was threat to her or anyone else, as she approached the two, the larger man noticeably tensed as did the other also though he was barely noticeable, with a flattering smile she greeted them and started talking casually about benign thing, causing both men to relax. Now she could observe the other man closer, he also had black hair but instead was deliberately style to be cut just off his ears and neatly sitting above his collar. As she gazed over him she saw him returning the sentiment with dark, thoughtful, blue eyes. He spoke with a barely noticeable Liverpudlian accent.

Shortly after her arrival the trio were interrupted by the arrival of another man, this one had Long jet-black hair pulled back into a ponytail, he had vivid dark green eyes and a faint scar on his forehead. When the man spoke if his looks alone had not screamed aristocrat, then his words just further added to the conclusion, with full pomp and ceremony he introduced himself, "Welcome to my humble abode, I don't believe we have had the pleasure of being introduced..."

"Elizabeth" was Widows simple delicate response, the man took her offered hand and grazed his lips against her knuckles, as she was expected to do, a small giggle escaped her lips.

"Elizabeth, if you hadn't guessed I am Henry Potter, now as the host of this little soirée, I could hardly ignore the most beautiful angel in the room." Internally Romanov rolled her eyes, could the man lay it on any thicker; still she looked through her eye lashes at him encouragingly. "Now gentlemen if you don't mind may a steal this lady for one dance?"

Without even waiting for a response he led her away leaving the room into an adjoining ball room, one side with fall to ceiling arched windows, that offered a view on to the back lawn, if one felt like being modest, that flowed down hill to the river and boat bellow. The windows themselves were filled with some of the most awe-inspiring sights painted in the stain glass windows, scenes depicting battle, feast filled with a myriad of mythical creatures the common theme seem that they all were from what she guessed to be Arthurian legend. The opposite side of the room was different as high near the ceiling were more portraits this time only of a single figure in each, noticing her gaze her host turn to explain, "A lasting reminder, each head of the family has his or her portrait up there upon their death".

"There must be hundreds of years' worth of history up there" was her reply whilst portraying a sense of awe that that she herself didn't feel, however no verbal reply gave instead her host gave her an indulgent smile and led her towards the centre of the room where she joined him in a slow waltz, "You dance very well for a such young man," Romanov commented as he led here around, as he appeared to at the oldest be around twenty four.

"Well you must thank my late godfather for forcing me to take lessons..."

The evening then progressed, the man, Harold left her occasionally to speak with people or dance with someone, yet he kept coming back to either flirt or introduce her. As it turns out he could certainly speak like a politician, he managed to blatantly insult a great deal of people so well discretely they could only smile back in response, least they were to appear rude.

So back to her present situation, she as currently tied up on what she presumed was Harold's bed, in what if she was honest had five minutes ago been kinda hot. Yet now she needed to get out, Coulson, or at least that who she presumed was on the phone to Harold at the moment demanding him to put her on, it had been going on for the past five minutes, and even Coulson was starting to lose his patience.

"Put the woman on the phone please." Though posed as a question Widow knew Phil meant it as an order, however from what she had gathered so far it seem at the beginning Phil had tried to threaten the man but for whatever reason it hadn't worked, and so their petty argument had gone on.

"Now sir, as I have said it is rude to just demand thing without introductions first, also..." at this point he held the phone toward Romanov who could only make muffled sounds as she was currently gagged, "as you can hear she is kind of tied up right now so, no can do afraid, bye!" With that Harold hung up the phone.

Walking up to her he slowing caressed her check and planting a slow kiss on her cheek, then simply went to leave the room only pausing as he was exiting the room to turn around and say, "It seems as it was not meant to be, my dear Natalia" and then he left the room.

Once the door shut the bounds suddenly just loosened and she was free, removing the gag and getting her cloths from the floor she grabbed the phone. She had very angry phone call to make, "Coulson, what is it" Widow snarled down the phone, it may not be the professionalism expect from one of the world leading assassins but hey that had been hot, and now she was annoyed.

"It's Barton, he's been compromised..." was his simple reply.

All anger evaporated just like that and the Black Widow was back, heading out of the surprisingly unlocked window she left. On her way out, what she didn't fail to see was the groups of soldiers' stationed around the perimeter in the tree line. What she would later realise when she thought back is the distribution of them wasn't for security, it appeared to be quite the opposite as if they were ready to storm the building when give the signal.

However, it also showed that the night had rattled Widow from her missing how Harold had addressed in the end. To the look of recognition that flashed over the face of the, tall attractive ginger man with pale blue eyes, who had been on the front patio looking by chance towards the side of the house where Natasha had escaped when she pasted him by. The young blond who had moved from the bar, did notice the look along with their host who was looking out one of the many windows in the east wing.

AN: Description of the Stately home is loosely based off of Castle Howard In Yorkshire (UK).

Also any grammatical error, do point them out as I will go back and correct them.


	2. Meeting the gang

Loki, a Norse god, Natasha scoffed at the thought was currently seated in the back of her Quinn jet after picking him up from Stuttgart. The Captain it seemed was trying to understand Loki's motive, well one may argue that staring at another man's eyes suggests other intention, but she doubted the Captain ever had such thoughts.

Tony clearly was not sure about the man? In front of him, but unlike any other sane person he found the best way to deal with his anxiety was to poke the bear, though in Starks defence the jury was still out on his mental state.

Now it seemed the captain had joined in "What the almighty god scared of a little lightning?" Steve mocked.

"No I'm just not overly fond of what follows." Reply Loki in resigned defeat.

Before Rodger or Stark could say anything else the Quinn jet was hit from behind and loading door forced down. Loki though didn't seem shocked as he was ripped out of the seat and from the jet, Stark stared at Captain America "And now there's that guy."

"Another Asgardian?" asked Romanov.

Rodgers was equally confused "That guy's a friendly?"

Whilst Stark did seem to care "Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!" Whatever else Rodgers wanted to say was cut off.

"I have a plan: attack!"

This was the scene Harold Black arrived to watch, a man with blond hair, red cape and swinging a hammer, if it were anyone else they may have assumed that it was fancy dress, or as Stark had said Shakespeare in the park. "Do not touch me again" bellowed the caped man.

However Harry, as he was known to his friends, could tell despite what appearance seemed this man in front of him was not human, similar yes but not the same. So instead of interfering, his disillusioned himself and stood at the edge of the clearing to observe, after all knowledge is power.

"Then don't take my stuff." The other figure fighting was encased in metal, Tony Stark or Iron Man was flying around and trying to dodge the endless swings of the war hammer from the Blond man. It was an amusing sight, similar to that of a dog trying chase its own tale.

His entertainment was quickly interrupted when a literal walking talking action man dropped out of the sky, completed by being covered in the star spangled banner, Steve Rogers or better known as Captain America. From this distance it was hard to tell what was being said however from Starks reaction he was clearly not in favour of the proposed action.

The Blond man seem to agree with Starks sentiment as he charged forward raising his hammer, in defence the old Captain raised his shield. The resulting shock wave flew towards Harry forcing him to raise a shield to dispel the energy which surely would have sent him flying.

The three combatants dragged themselves upright looking around, Rogers had his mouth already open talking about working together, or some shit like that. Yet what had Harry's attention was that fact the Blond giant was scanning the area directly where he stood, it was clear that the blond didn't see him, but seem to know that something was there.

Thinking quickly he drew in and cloaked his magic, whilst this was not a perfect science, unless someone knew specifically what to look for you were near untraceable by magical means. This was proven as very quickly afterwards the Blond changed his line of sight to look and listen to Rogers and Stark.

Now he had had his fun, his job to find what had caused the massive energy surge was a go, and so far it seemed his best bet was to follow this group, who had just started to make their way up on the hill.

At the top a Quinn jet was just sitting down, but what drew Harry's attention was the man dressed in Slytherin green with a golden helmet, that had stupid reindeer antlers mounted on each side.

Whilst 'Dear Man' or Loki as everyone had called him, was still chained up they started loading him upon the jet, Harry decided to join them on board, seeing the Black Widow in the pilots' seat started to move over towards her, though from his recent encounter he was less than impressed. He had of course heard of her by reputation however after meeting her it seemed that those tales had been over inflated and she was no more than a whore who killed not a legendary assassin. As he sat in the previously empty co-pilot seat, Black Widow glanced over in his direction, so perhaps he had judged her too fast and she was more skilled than he had given her credit for.

The trip to where SHIELD had currently decided to base themselves was relatively peaceful only a small biting remarks from all side.

As it turned out the Blond man was actually Thor and antler helmet was his brother Loki, Norse god of thunder and the Trickster respectively. Seeing the giant God of Thunder bent over to fit in the seating area of the Quinn jet was an amusing site.

His attention though was drawn to the conversation between Loki and Thor, "So tell dear brother, how much dark energy did the All Farther have to conjure up to bring you here."

That certainly explained as to what one of those blasts of energy were and came to investigate, however whilst he could feel the presence of the two 'Gods' he could also feel something else, more ancient in design. Well turned out this was going to fun in the end.

Harry had seen quite a lot since the end of the war in his travels, however even was impressed with the Helicarrier SHIELD had commissioned. As it started to rise from the ocean he decided to go in and find out what prison they had considered to be acceptable to hold a Norse god.

He approached what felt like the bottom decks where he saw a sudden increase in the number of personal that were guarding the surrounding area.

Entering through the door he saw a dark-skinned man who was missing his left eye, conversing with the trickster god himself. That explained the sudden increase in security, clearly, they weren't as sure of their prison as Fury was currently making out to the god. Though Harry had to admit firstly the, 'cage' as Loki had described it was certainly formidable, he also liked the mind game from Fury to keep his guard hidden from view of the cell. It at least appeared that they didn't fear him, well appearances were deceptive.

Once Fury had left, after threatening the Asgardian one last time, he approached the cell this wearing his invisibility cloak instead of a disillusionment charm; much is easier to observe when they don't know you're there. He sent a small light legilimency attack at Loki, the 'God' didn't seem to notice but what Harry met was solid wall of blue swirling lights, this was new, his problem being was it because he was Asgardian, possibly because of this ancient power he felt, or as was correct most of the time neither and instead something else completely. He would have to think of that latter but it seemed the Black Widow had entered; evidently he had been in Loki's mind far longer than he thought.

He waited to watched Natalia in her natural environment she certainly had a way with words, even out talking the silver tongued God himself, though Harry himself was certain he was better than that supposed god as well. Anyway besides mentally stroking his own ego, he wanted to see the rest of the ship, so followed behind Black Widow out, and what a beautiful sight it was.

The bridge of the Helicarrier seemed to be needlessly large and overmanned, but then again Harry was confident with himself, thus never felt the need to overcompensate with other things, as other men did. A small treacherous part of mind was thinking of his 5 ft staff he carried but Harry deliberately ignored that, in favour of having his moral high ground.

The fact that having the moral high ground in an argument that one had made up in their own head was irrelevant, and didn't cross his mind.

"Where's the director?" Ahh so that was why Romanov had come here, to find the puppet master.

"Stark has hacked into our system, Fury went to find out why." Harry spun round to find a tall burnet, stand in a similar outfit to that of Natalia, though she didn't pull it off as well. A quick look in to her head, told him the basics, agent Maria Hill, one of Fury's most trusted men, an important piece of information for later.

Maria Hill respected The Black Widow immensely for her skill, however as one of the few that knew mostly what she had gone through to be that, made the more human part of her mind felt sorry for her. She doubted anyone knew the full extent of what had happened not even Barton, Fury or even Coulson, who knew nearly everything about everyone.

See the resigned look on Romanovs; face once she told her of Starks action, told her this was not a surprise. That fact that Romanov had shown that look told her one of two things, either she was sure where she felt safe and actual trusted anyone nearby, or the more likely and what she suspected to be the truth was that the past few days had really take their toll.

Following Natalia to what turned out to be a laboratory, was an enlightening experience, it seemed that the Black Widow was always on guard, even thought they were on a friendly ship she was still awaiting an attack, always checking her surroundings.

The door to the lab opened revealing a four or five way argument, it was hard to tell, at the back of the room two massive presences drew his attention. One was rage, pure unadulterated rage, he presumed that the man must be Dr Banner and his alter ego the Hulk. The other though was ancient, the same as the power he had felt early, Loki's sceptre, that felt ancient, and he truly meant ancient, even Hogwarts didn't feel old heck even the Great Library of Alexandria didn't feel like that.

That was when an explosion racked the ship, making Harry fall through resulting the hole from the explosion, a loud roar from his right caused him to spin and see a massive green giant. Going off instinct Harry already had his wand in his hand, and was about to fire a chain of explosive and piercing curse when his brain kick in. Realising that he was not the target of the Hulk added to the fact he was also trying to not be seen made him stop and think of his action.

In fact, it seemed that Romanov in her attempt to calm Banner down had made herself a target. She span and jumped to dodge, as the Hulk who chased her around, destroyed anything that was its path, it looked truly like a beast of pure rage, and also the exact representation of a bull in a china shop.

Despite Romanovs best attempts the Hulk eventually managed to land a hit on her sending the Black Widow into the wall, Harry seeing this quickly, on instinct fire a cushioning charm at the wall. Whilst his charm had nullified the effect of crashing into the wall, Romanov was still dazed form the initial hit.

Recognising that she was unable to defend herself at that moment Harry, employed tactics he had used against giants in the war, and sent a banishing charm at beast which in turn set the creature sliding along the passageway, whilst also throwing any bits of loose debris as projectiles.

Harry to avoid risking and major injury thought it best to follow what had been an effective plan prior, it stood to reason it was going to be just as susceptible to psychical attacks as a gaint. In the war Harry, had devolved the strategy to transfiguring a large metal spike and either banish the spike or the giant into the other, which way depended on the situation, but both were effective, but also lethal so in this situation he skipped the spike.

Once the hulk was sent flying off in another direction, the God of Thunder came shooting past to engage the beast swinging his hammer like a berserker. With the threat of the Hulk neutralised for now, Harry took off to find out what was happening elsewhere on the Helicarrier.

Navigating the ships was a like maze, the corridors that were all uniformed, so he switched to another tactic trying to head in the general direction of where he sensed the sceptre was. After all that was warranted further study and thus was to be acquired.

Arriving at what turned out to be where SHIELD had elected to hold Loki, he saw the god himself holding the sceptre, by the side against the wall was a man dying from what appeared to be a stab wound, presumably thanks to Loki himself.

With the aim of acquiring that sceptre Harry cancelled his disillusionment charm and fire a simple spell chain taught to all beginning duellist. Spell chains were effective for overwhelming an opponent with just the sheer number of spells, this style could be easily countered though with mobility or getting up close and personal to your opponent. Being trapped in the smaller room due to the massive hole the cage falling had left meant that room was limited, so if Loki knew what to do he should try to get close to Harry, of course Harry knew this too.

Whilst the chain was simply countered it certainly was quick to fire off and therefore an easy way to help gauge how your opponent fought. Its basic was design started to disarmed then stun with a little bit's flavour thrown in to connect them, the effect of hitting it all would be a disarmed unconscious target that was also bound and likely to have minor burns and at exiting various orifices.

Loki clearly surprised by the sudden attack, dodged as many as he could, but as he was caught off guard the final stunning curse initially looked to hit dead centre, however as Loki raised his sceptre to intercept it, it simply deflected off to the side.

"So a young magician, you think you can take me." Loki spat as he started to size up his opponent "I'm a GOD, foolish mortal."

Harry having long grown tired of the whole villain monologue stage, simply responded by manoeuvring his own staff sending another spell chain at his advisory, unlike like last time this one it was not friendly nor tame. Instead it consisted of blood boiling and bone breaking curse mixed with a variety of other cursed aimed either maim or kill, in the most gruesome and painful manner, mixed in between.

Loki, not as surprised this time and using his Asgardian heritage to his advantage weaved between as many spells as could only using his sceptre when necessary.

If Harry had been any lesser of an opponent then he would likely have not notice when the God created an illusion, and moved to come at his back, 'coward' Harry mentally scoffed.

Harry felt if Loki was going to do this then he should respond in kind, what Loki didn't know was Harry had effectively recreated illusion magic for the Wizarding World after the war, so was unmatched in his skill, even among supposed gods.

Harry left his illusion firing spells at 'Loki' when really, he moved out of the way to try and sense where the real Loki was, sensing him nearly directly at 'Harry's' back he moved to grab the staff.

To Harry's immense surprise it turned out the man laying against the wall wasn't dead yet. Clearly figuring out was Loki was using the same tactic that had gotten him, aimed his weapon at where he thought Loki would reappear.

He had been right except for the fact Harry was also invisible and in his line of fire. Wizards who had experience from surviving years of battles were know to developed a sort of minor divination ability to that lets the feel the second before the shot was fired, but instinct told Harry could not dodge in time. Instead in the split second he threw up his strongest shield at his back and hoped it was enough. Even without a shield he doubted even if it hit directly it would kill him but still it would create a mess, hurt and more importantly leave him to been seen by some else if they walked in when he was trying to recover, whilst also making retrieving the sceptre impossible.

Loki was however clearly surprised when the person he thought he was about to stab in the back came flying from his left after an attack from a 'dead' man.

Realising he had severely underestimated his opponent Loki decided discretion to be the better part of valour and to retire whilst his opponent was down on the other side of the room.

Harry looked over at the man who shot him, clearly the man was near death an had little time left, "sorry about that, wanted to see what it did" the man grasped out.

The door to the room opened, seeing that it was Fury who walked through Harry disillusioned himself and hobbled off, grasping his side which currently felt as if hot acid was being continuously pouring on to hit, to catch up to the fleeing meddlesome god.

After checking over the damage inflicted from whatever the hell that agent, whom he had been trying to avenge, had shot him with Harry proceed through corridors that had clearly seen battle. Arriving on the flight deck Harry watched the god fly off, knowing that whilst he could keep up, without a broom, unsupported flight at that speed would take its toll even on him. Deciding that the 'Avengers' as they had called themselves would probably be chasing after him soon he elected to wait and see what course of action they took.


End file.
